School has ended for almost everyone and summer has begun! It may seem that since you don’t have school anymore, you will have plenty of free time… yeah right! I don’t know that there is plenty of free time for homeschool moms. During the summer months you don’t want your children to stop learning because they are out of school. Our homeschool schools through the summer. Although we don’t get our workbooks out, we still use everyday lessons to learn and gain understanding or a new concept. One thing that we absolutely love to do is reading!

So let’s talk about summer reading. Summer is a great time to get a list of books you want to read. I have 7 younger siblings of all ages, so I get quite a few different books from the library for them.
Some of the ones that the 11yo and 8yo are going to read are:

The Little House on the Prairie Series
The Kingdom Series

We also have a 14yo and she is going to read:

Anne of Green Gables

Our 17yo is not a big reader, but she has just finished:

The Bridge to Terabithia

I am the avid reader here, and my list is pretty long, but the specific ones I am looking forward to reading are:

Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (almost finished with)
Rosa of Linden Castle by Christoph von Schmid
The Cross and The Switchblade by Dave Wilkerson
Run Baby Run by Nicky Cruz
The Infinite Day by Chris Walley
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss (for the fourth time)

There are a few reading programs online that I have found that you can join for the summer.
TOS’s Summer Reading Splash . TOS wants to help make reading fun this summer! Splish the Frog will be around too. The site says:

“Each week, here on our blog, we will be posting a new topic question.  We’d like you to think about these and then e-mail your answers to us by clicking here.  E-mailing your answers is much safer than leaving a comment.  If you have your own e-mail address, that’s fine;  if not, have your mom or dad e-mail your answer to us.  Each Friday we will have a drawing and we’ll be giving away some fantastic books (and series of books)!  Also, we may pick YOUR answer to post here on our blog- just for fun! You’ll want to check out our Summer Reading Splash webpage also- here you’ll have access to downloading our log sheets.  We will have one for younger children and one for older children available.  Please, please, please keep track of ALL the books you read.  At the end of the program, we’ll have a special prize for those of you who turn in your reading logs (more details to come!)”

HSB Literary Club is also continuing reading through the summer. Currently we have just started reading Rosa of Linden Castle by Christoph von Schmid and are very behind on our schedule because the moderators went on vacation! Now they are back and ready to get started again.

Don’t let summer put learning on hold! That’s why we homeschool. To have freedom to learn the way we want. Reading is an excellent way to learn about everything.
Another thing you can do after you read the book is blog about. Write a review and blog about it. Blogging is a great way not only to share books with other homeschoolers, but also to never let the learning stop!

What are some of the books you are reading? What about your children? Have they made up lists of books they want to read?

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

I am so happy that spring has finally come! what a glorious time it is to see all of God’s creation come to life and bloom in His beauty!
I have recently decided I love spring almost as much as I love summer. It is so awesome to see the grass turn green, the trees get their leaves on the branches, the flowers bloom, and the fruit trees blossoming with beautiful flowers that will turn in to delicious fruit!

I was a little stuck as what to do today, but then I thought that I hadn’t really done any poetry. I am not a big poem fan, so its not something I think of! haha!
Here are some poems for your pleasure on the beauty and loveliness of spring!

Two Tramps in Mud Time
The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You’re one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you’re two months back in the middle of March.

by Robert Frost

A Prayer in Spring
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year. Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees. And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid-air stands still. For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.

by Robert Frost

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.
If we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.

by Anne Bradstreet

If Spring came but once in a century, instead of once a year,
or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake,
and not in silence, what wonder and expectation there would
be in all hearts to behold the miraculous change!
But now the silent succession suggests nothing but necessity.
To most men only the cessation of the miracle would be
miraculous and the perpetual exercise of God’s power
seems less wonderful than its withdrawal would be.”

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Nature: April
An altered look about the hills;
A Tyrian light the village fills;
A wider sunrise in the dawn;
A deeper twilight on the lawn;
A print of a vermilion foot;
A purple finger on the slope;
A flippant fly upon the pane;
A spider at his trade again;
An added strut in chanticleer;
A flower expected everywhere …”

Emily Dickinson

Flower in the Crannied Wall
Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower–but if I could understand What you are,
root and all, all in all,
I should know what God and man is.”

by Lord Alfred Tennyson

Sonnet 98
From you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud-pied April dress’d in all his trim
Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing,
That heavy Saturn laugh’d and leap’d with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hue
Could make me any summer’s story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew;
Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.
Yet seem’d it winter still, and, you away,
As with your shadow I with these did play.”

by William Shakespeare

The Year’s at the Spring
The year’s at spring
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill sides’s dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in his heaven -
All’s right with the world!”
by Robert Browning

April
For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
the flowers appear on the earth;
the time of the singing of birds is come,
and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.”
- Song of Solomon ‘Tis the noon of the spring-time,
Yet never a bird In the wind-shaked elm or the maple is heard;
For green meadow-grasses wide levels of snow,
And blowing of drifts where the crocus should blow;
Where wind-flower and violet, amber and white;
On south-sloping brooksides should smile in the light,
O’er the cold winter-beds of their late-waking roots
The frosty flake eddies, the ice crystal shoots;
And, longing for light, under wind-driven heaps,
Round the boles of the pine-wood the ground-laurel creeps,
Unkissed of the sunshine, unbaptized of showers,
With buds scarcely swelled, which should burst into flowers!”

by John Greenleaf Whittier

Lines Written in Early Spring
Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trails its wreath;
And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes. The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure;
But the least motion which they made,
It seemed a thrill of pleasure. The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can
That there was pleasure there. If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature’s holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?”

by William Wordsworth

Beneath these fruit-tree boughs that shed
Their snow-white blossoms on my head,
With brightest sunshine round me spread
Of spring’s unclouded weather,
In this sequestered nook how sweet
To sit upon my orchard-seat!
And birds and flowers once more to greet,
My last year’s friends together.”

by William Wordsworth

Spring is the Period
Spring is the Period
Express from God.
Among the other seasons
Himself abide,

But during March and April
None stir abroad
Without a cordial interview
With God.”
by Emily Dickinson

I hope you enjoyed these. I did. Take time this spring to smell the flowers, watch the clouds and love the creation that God has given us!
Prayers and Blessings!

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

I am such a true love romantic. I love it when through trials and lessons learned that two people who loved each other from the beginning finally get to get married. It is so sweet!

Lately we have been watching “The Complete Jane Austen” on PBS. I have always like Jane Austen, but had only read and seen Pride and Prejudice. Well… since PBS has been showing all of her works in movie form, I found I REALLY like her!
My favorite so far as been Persuasion, and then Mansfield Park. I just finished Persuasion and am trying to get the other.

Jane Austen’s personal story is a sad one. To have written all those love stories and then never to have found your own “Mr. Darcy” or “Captain Wentworth”. There was also a movie made about her life. It was neat, though, to see how much of her own life she put into her stories.

Miss Austen only was able to write 6 novels because her life was a short one.
A list of her works is in written order:

Northanger Abbey
Mansfield Park
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Emma
Persuasion

I am going to read all of her works during my senior year of high school. I would highly recommend this novels! There is such real life situations. There are real life lessons too that we can learn from.

Here are some quotes I quite enjoy:

“Provided that nothing like useful knowledge could be gained from them, provided they were all story and no reflection, she had never any objection to books at all.” - Northanger Abbey

“There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere.“ - Mansfield Park

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” - Pride and Prejudice

“If you observe, people always live for ever when there is an annuity to be paid them” - Sense and Sensibility

“There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.” - Emma

“One man’s ways may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best.”“ - Persuasion

In other literature news… the HSB Literary Club has finished The Inheritance and have decided on a new book, Helen’s Temper. If you would like to join in the discussion this time, there is a Mr. Linky you can sign. We would love to have you join. And no, you do not have to have an HSB blog to join us!
Prayers and Blessings,

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

This is Saturday Poetry & Literature. I am Amanda…thanks for joining me. This is my first time doing this and writing for such a big site. I know a lot of people read this, and I am little skeptical as to what to write for this post.

his is has been an exciting week for me as yesterday was my 18th birthday. In honor of that I thought I would share some ‘birthday’ type scripture verses for everyone to read and be encouraged by. Along with the Scriptures, I thought maybe a poem would be a great tie-in with this theme. One of my best friends wrote this poem for my 18th birthday. It is pretty funny. He did a really nice job on it.

Now on to the ‘birthday’ scriptures… The Bible says there are two births; one physical, the other spiritual.

John 3:3
“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

I heard the neatest saying a couple weeks ago. It is: “If you are born twice, you will die once. If you are born once, then you will die twice.” That is so profound. It is a blessing to be able to be born twice, so I don’t have to die twice.

One of most important births was Jesus’. Now I know its not Christmas, but to go along with the birthday theme, I couldn’t leave His out.

Luke 1:14
And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.

Now, that is the kind of birthday remembrance that Jesus deserves. I know I have joy and gladness because of His birth.

One verse that is so encouraging and just shows how God knows all and understands all is:

Jeremiah 1:5a
“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world.”

That means that I am set apart to be a light in this dark world for Christ. And he knew that way before I was born. He knew what my life would be and what my testimony would be too. He knew that I would be blogging right now. He knew that Jocelyn would throw an amazing birthday bash for me yesterday. Isn’t it great to know that God knew everything about us way before we were even formed in our mother’s womb?? WOW!!

Birthdays are very important. Not only do they remind us that someone special is in our lives, but they also remind us we don’t have forever in this life.

Psalm 29:11
“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered and my life is fleeing away.”

Boy, David sure did know how to put things into perspective. Often times, I think we get caught up in our little worlds, that we forget that our time here to honor, praise and share God is short. We need to take time and realize that we aren’t here that long and we need to make the most of the time we have left.

Speaking of time… the Bible also says:

Ecclesiastes 3
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.”

Everything we do has a specific meaning. Every minute in our lives count toward something. We don’t have them just to waste away idly. God has made everything in His time, including us. One of my favorite parts of that selection is: He hath made every thing beautiful in his time. I love this. It reminds me of when I was little and I used to sing specials in church, I always chose this song. It means so much that God will make everything beautiful. Every ugly situation we go through, every tough time we live through. God has something beautiful planned for us on the other side of the valley.

As I end this, I leave you with this saying: “Too BLESSED to be depressed.” I know I am. And besides this is a HAPPY week. So go get a piece of cake in celebration of my 18th birthday. See you in a month!!

Miss Amanda